Where have gone the buffalo in their millions covering the plains? Where are the ancient costal sentries of the Pacific North West, two meter in diameter and 50 meters tall? Where are the runs of salmon so thick that "one could walk across the Puget Sound?" Our world is changing. Some of the shift is natural, the growth and dynamics of this living organism that is the environment. While some of this change is due to man and our desire to dominate and to use without though for tomorrow. When the degradation of this world is examined, it can overwhelm the senses and suffocate hope. I don't know if we can turn around this pattern of drain and degradation, but I ask you to join me. Join me in integrity, in humility, in action, and even in hope. I ask YOU as I ask myself to be true to your beliefs. If this world is precious to you, if you share in the desire to protect the treasure that is the diversity of the natural world, join with me in being an agent of creation.
While there are technical manuals and scientific papers galore on ecological restoration, the purpose of this blog is to break the philosophies, concepts, and tools of restoration down for the dedicated individual. One doesn't need a degree to protect and restore the environment (I'm not diminishing formal training but speaking against excuses and apathy). So please join me in learning and acting for a sound and sustainable future.
Aldo Leopold summed up our unique opportunity succinctly when he wrote:
“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a good shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree—and there will be one.”
-- A Sand County Almanac, 1949
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